Thoughts on being a ‘special snowflake’: I mean, I guess so

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By Kaydee Donohoo

Staff writer

At this point in the post-election world, you’ve probably been called a snowflake… or at least indirectly called a snowflake because someone with your same opinion was called a snowflake.

Source: PBSLearningMedia.org

But let me tell you, my dear readers, I am so over this term as an insult.

I get it. They think they’ve found the perfect put down. Snowflakes melt under heat. Snowflakes sound like a pet name used ironically, like how “sorry, cupcake” sounds degrading when you’re talking to anyone who isn’t your ten-year-old daughter.

It’s stupid to think you’re more unique than you actually are, right? You’re obviously being “sensitive” when people don’t “respect” your take on your “uniqueness.”

People who think they’re special and unlike everyone else in the world in a unique pretty crystallized way?It only makes sense to call them snowflakes!

Well, let me tell you, I think they could have found a much better insult.

Snowflakes are a terrible metaphor, actually. Yes, it’s extremely unlikely that two snowflakes are exactly the same. Yet, from far away, or even from less-super-close-up snowflakes all look and function the exact same.

And, are they forgetting what snowflakes can do when they work together? Trust me, I know because I lived in Boston during Snowpocalypse 2015. Haven’t those tossing around the snowflake insult seen pictures? Or know that the subway didn’t work for almost two months? All of that was just the result of “multiple snowflakes.”

I don’t think there’s a better metaphor for how small things can build up over time. When snowflakes “work together” they are hard not to notice. Snowstorms can shut entire cities down. Blizzards are not something you want to get stuck in. Avalanches can kill.

The idea behind using “snowflake” as an insult suggests that asking for equal treatment is special treatment, and I’m really tired of that mindset.

Those who are called “snowflakes” are unique because people are unique. Knowing you are “special” doesn’t mean thinking you’re better than other people.

It also doesn’t mean thinking you’re perfect. I’ve heard the argument that to get over being a snowflake is to learn about flaws and limitations.

None of us on the young and left side of politics is aware of our flaws? Being unique and having flaws go together. Flaws and imperfections are the reasons that people are different from each other.

People throwing the snowflake insult are, at times, white supremacists. Yet, snowflakes are probably the whitest thing in nature I can think of. Shouldn’t they like snowflakes? Also, conservative beliefs are extremely individualistic. What is more snowflakey than that?

Furthermore, why did the snowflake metaphor ever become a bad things?

Do you remember learning about snowflakes when you were little? I remember wondering whether the pattern of a melted snowflake could reappear in the next storm.

Someone told me no…or at least that the concept of no two snowflakes being alike included every snowflake that has existed or will exist.

I remember thinking that this was the coolest thing I’ve ever heard! More so than the concept that I was unlike any other person that has existed or ever will exist.

I know I learned about both. The first was fantastic, the second was a little overwhelming to think about.

Even if there was someone nearly identical to me in looks and personality, it wouldn’t matter. I’d probably never meet her. If we did meet, there would have to be something different, such as where we grew up.

The concept isn’t neat because I’m unique, it’s neat because all the people ever are unique.

Being happy that everyone is unique, and not just me, is the probably the least “snowflake” thing I could believe in the eyes of the anti-snowflakes.

Not to mention that snowflakes are insanely pretty. Have you seen them under microscopes?

Do I consider myself a snowflake? I mean…I guess I have to. But snowflakes are fantastic. I will gladly be a snowflake. “Snowflake” means being tolerant of all the diversity and human experiences that the internet trolls are against.